Hot Architecture: Reflections from a London Skyscraper are Scorching Cars Below

This funny-shaped skyscraper in London dubbed the “Walkie Talkie” has definitely got people talking. Though London isn’t known for many sunshine hours, lately the curved structure of the building has been causing it to reflect intense sunlight onto cars parked on a nearby street below.

This engineering fail is reminiscent of the Vdara Hotel & Spa fiasco in Las Vegas, which was a casino opened in 2009 that featured a curved structure similar to that of the London building. The Vdara also beamed solar rays onto unsuspecting people and objects in its pool, burning everything in its path. It’s difficult to fathom how such a design fail could be repeated so soon after the fact or how simple lessons in geometry could be ignored.

One person not ignoring the problem, however, was Martin Lindsay, a distraught Jaguar XJ owner whose car was burned in the ordeal. Lindsay parked the car for two hours to attend a meeting, and was greeted by a melted automobile upon his return!